Air Defense: The Changing Stories

Official accounts of the military's response to the attack on 9/11/01 --
or lack thereof --
has gone through at least three mutually contradictory versions,
a fact that has remained virtually un-noticed
by mainstream news organizations.

e x c e r p t

title:Thee Versions of the Official Story

Three Versions of the Official Story

Version 1: No Scrambles

In his confirmation hearing two days after the attack,
General Myers, acting head of the Joint Cheifs of Staff
on the day of the attack, said he thought that no interceptors
were scrambled until after the Pentagon was attacked.

LEVIN: Was the Defense Department contacted by the FAA or the FBI or any other
agency after the first two hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade
Center, prior to the time that the Pentagon was hit?

MYERS: Sir, I don't know the answer to that question. I can get that for you,
for the record.

LEVIN: Thank you. Did the Defense Department take -- or was the Defense
Department asked to take action against any specific aircraft?

MYERS: Sir, we were . . .

LEVIN: And did you take action against -- for instance, there has been
statements that the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania was shot down.
Those stories continue to exist.

MYERS: Mr. Chairman, the armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft. When
it became clear what the threat was, we did scramble fighter aircraft, AWACS,
radar aircraft and tanker aircraft to begin to establish orbits in case other
aircraft showed up in the FAA system that were hijacked. But we never actually
had to use force.

LEVIN: Was that order that you just described given before or after the
Pentagon was struck? Do you know?

MYERS: That order, to the best of my knowledge, was after the Pentagon
was struck.

Version 3: The 9/11 Commission Report

AAFlight 11

UAFlight 175

phantomFlight 11*

AAFlight 77

UAFlight 93

Notification of NEADS

08:38

09:15

--

09:34

10:07

Fighters Scrambled

08:46

09:24

Fighters Airborne

08:53

Originating Base

Otis, MA

Langley, VA

*Phantom Flight 11
refers to the Commission's assertion that the F-16s scrambled
from Langley were sent up, not to intercept Flight 77,
but to look for Flight 11, under the erroneous belief
that it had bypassed New York City and was headed for the capital.